Bottle cleaning apparatus



Dec. 13, 1955 H. G. voLcKENlNG BOTTLE CLEANING APPARATUS Filed Dec. l0. 1952 5 /l 3 ///l 9 .////v// r/ WM IN V EN TOR HENRY G. VOLCKENING G 23 By ATTORNEY United States Patent BOTTLE CLEANlNG APPARATUS Henry G. Volckening, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Application December 10, 1952, Serial No. 325,098

2 Claims. (Cl. 15-68) This invention relates to bottle cleaning and rinsing.

A principal object of the invention is to produce a relatively long slender duct adapted for entrance into the neck of an ordinary glass bottle, such as is commonly used to contain beer or popular soft drinks, which is made of a material that will not mar, scuff or scratch the inside of the bottle and is structurally strong enough to sustain rapid rotation on its axis, while serving to rotate, within a bottle, a cleaning brush attached to its end and at the same time allow a substantial ow of cleaning fluid through a longitudinalbore and, in addition, includes a cleaning brush which is free from exposed metallic parts and is attached to the duct in such a manner that no metallic parts are exposed for contact withany portion of the bottle to be washed and, in addition, the duct is reenforced by a non-continuous means which is free from a tendency to hold the duct ina bent condition.

Other objects and advantages will appear. as the description of the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

n describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing, consisting of one View, which is a longitudinal sectional view illustrating my invention in connection with a bottle washing apparatus.

Those acquainted with the bottling art are well aware that very considerable thought has been given to the various devices which are used in cleaning and rinsing bottles of the type of the ordinary beer bottle and the ordinary bottle used for soft drinks to the endthat while cleaningthe bottle, there shall beno damage or injury to or alteration of the surface of the bottle or permanent strain created in the bottle, particularly the inside surface thereof, as by marring, scutng, or scratching the surface of the bottle, particularly the inside surface thereof, and no fractures made in thebottle or chips broken from the bottle or incipient cracks formed therein, in short, insofar as the washing or rinsing may have an effect, the bottle will be, after the washing, substantially as perfect as a new annealed bottle.

It is well known to those familiar with the bottling art that if a carbonated beverage is placed in a bottle and restrained therein while under a considerable pressure due to the carbonic acid gascontained therein, that if the bottle has been damaged and there is a strain in the inner surface of the bottle, such as caused by marring, scufng or scratching, a very slight blow on the outside of the bottle is very likely to result in an explosion, such explosions are frequent anddangerous.

If the metallic holder of the bristles of one common type of washing brush becomes considerably bent, it may well rub against the inside surface of the bottle causing damage as marring, scuffing, or scratching and so a strain. Furthermore, although the brush ferrules made of metal of another commonly used type, have no projections which are of sharp contour, nevertheless, the rubbing of the metal ferrule ,against the inside of the bottle is believed to be likely `to cause damage to a bottle.

A portion of the common cleaning apparatus which is Aquite likely to cause damage to a bottle on the inside is the cleaning brush rotating apparatus. This, commonly madeof metal, in practice, is rotated at a very considerable speed while within a bottle and may well come in Contact with the inside surface, particularly at the neck and mar, sculf, and scratch the inside surface of the neck. It also quite commonly carries a metallic brush ferrule which is very likely to come in contact with the inside surface of the bottle while rotating, and if not suitably formed, may form a scratch on the inside of the bottle and in any event may mar or scul the surface, particularly the inside surface of the neck of the bottle. My previous Patents 2,339,123, dated January 11, 1944, and 2,492,820, dated December 27, 1949, are both directed to constructions which I devised to prevent or minimize the chance of any portion of the brush or retaining ferrule causing damage to the inside of a bottle.

As stated, a ferrule and brush are commonly placed on the tip end of a metallic tube. This metallic tube is rotated on its longitudinal axis and rotates the brush while the tube enters the neck of a bottle being washed or rinsed, thus possibly mari-ing, scuing or scratching the inside of the neck of the bottle. Efforts have been made to minimize the opportunity of the carrying tube scratching the inside surface of a bottle. The metallic tube has been covered with a sleeve such as rubber or the like.

This construction has the inherent faults of the unprotected metal tube as well as serious faults'of its own. lt has been found that the small diameter slender metallic tubes used for introducing and rotating a brush in a bottle, such as an ordinary beer bottle, are very likely to become bent, as by contact with the end of the bottle, on the outside adjacent the mouth, or something within the bottle. lt has been found that when one of these long slender tubes has been even slightly bent, it is quite impossible or impracticable to straighten it.

lt is well known that beer and soft drink bottles which have been returned and which have to be cleaned, frequently contain objects which have been vplaced therein. As an enormous number of these bottles have to `be washed, and as the persons who do the washing are not always entirely reliableb0ttles often get into the washing machine with the foreign articles therein.r When a metal tube type of washer is introduced into a bottle to be washed, it might very well, if the bottle is not well positioned, contact the end of the bottle while being introduced, and also might well contact end-on with a foreign article kin the bottle. The result often is that the tube becomes bent. Sometimes, so badybent, that the washing machine has to be stopped and the tube removed and replaced. In other cases, the tube may become bent, but not to such an extent as to be quickly detected by the bottle washer. Such a bent tube can very well grind roughly against the inside of bottles being washed and quite thoroughly damage the inside of many bottles before it is detected. Some of the larger washing machines may have as many as 192 brush spindles `or tubes ,and rinsing tubes. Such a machine would deliver more than 320 brushed and rinsed bottles per minute. With such a large machine, a tube might very well become quite seriously bent, but run all day long without detection, so causing an immense amount of inside bottle damage.

In the case of such a device, not only does the inner metallic tube become bent, just as do unprotected tubes, but the sheath easily becomes damaged and then the tube, sheath and covering revolve together resulting in the destruction of thev entire tube.

Another difhculty with the usual metallic bottle cleaning and rinsing tubes is that when one of them strikes the inside lip of the bottle in being projected into the bottle, it will often start an incipient crack or fracture the neck or chip a piece of glass off. This also is quite fatal to the future security of the bottle.

I have now provided an apparatus which obviates the diiculties hereinbefore pointed out. I have illustrated my invention in connection with bottle washing.

In the drawing, 1 designates a bottle to be washed. 3 designates a receiving head for receiving bottle 1. The receiving head 3 receives the bottle 1 and positions it by reason of the conical depression 5 therein so that the oritice 7 in the neck of the bottle is positioned quite accurately over the orifice 9 in the member 3.

The spindle or duct of my invention is designated as a whole by D. The duct is an elongated cylindrical body formed with a through bore 11. It is attached in any suitable or appropriate manner as by externally formed screw threads 13 mating with internally formed screw threads 15 formed in a holder 17. The holder 17 is secured in any suitable or appropriate manner as by matching screw threads 19, to a rotatable pulley 21, suitably mounted, as on end thrust ball bearings 23 mounted on a manually operable member 25. The pulley 21 may be driven in any suitable or appropriate manner as by a belt 27 and the member may be moved up and down manually to introduce and retract the duct D and its attached parts into the bottle 1.

As the cleaning is to be a wet cleaning, the source of fluid is connected by a flexible duct 29 to the interior bore 31 connecting with the bore 11 of the duct D so that a constant supply of uid is supplied to the bore of duct D.

At the upper end of the duct D the brush ferrule attaching device is secured, designated as a whole by 33. This brush ferrule holding device is constructed of any suitable material, preferably metal, and, preferably brass and is made with a cylindrical tang 35 of such external diameter that it is a forced t within the bore 11 of the duct D so that when in place it will hold by friction. In order to increase the holding power, a small portion of the brush ferrule holder has a slightly enlarged diameter as at 37, closely adjacent the end of the duct when in place, and the outer surface thereof is suitably roughened as by knurling, to thereby increase the grip between the brush ferrule holder and the duct D.

The brush ferrule holder 33 is preferably provided with a shoulder 39 which abuts the end of the duct D and beyond the shoulder between it and the end of the holder there is formed means for attaching the brush ferrule to the holder. This means takes the form, preferably, of an external screw thread 41. The brush ferrule holder 33 is formed throughout its length with a thorough bore 43.

The brush ferrule 45 is formed with a cavity 47 and within this cavity is formed an internal thread 49 to mate with the external thread 41 on the member 33. The ferrule 45 is formed with a skirt 51 beyond the end of the thread 49 to allow the shoulder member 39 of the member 33 to extend up into and be covered by the brush ferrule 45 so that no portion whatsoever of the metal of the holder is exposed.

The upper end of the brush ferrule is formed with a cavity 53 within which a portion of the brush is forced and wedged by means of a member 55, each strand of the brush being continuous from the extreme end of the brush down to and through the cavity and up to the extreme end of the brush again, the brush as a whole being designated 57.

The ferrule 45 is preferably formed with a slanting portion 59 adjacent the extreme upper end and is provided with a bore 61 opening in the outer surface at one end and into the cavity 47 at the other end.

In operation, the driving belt 27 rotates the duct D on its longitudinal axis with considerable speed and after a bottle has been placed on a receiving head 3 in the conical depression 5, the spindle with its associated parts is raised by the manually operable member 25 up into the bottle and preferably so the extreme upper end of the brush 57 just touches the inside bottom of the bottle. Under such conditions the separate strands of the brush will be thrown out as illustrated by the dot-dash lines 63 against the side of the bottle thoroughly scouring the same. While the brush 57 is scouring the sides and bottom of the bottle, a stream of cleaning uid flows from the bottom from the flexible conduit 29 through the bore 31 and the bore 11, cavity 47 and bore 61 into the bottle and then ows from the bottle around the outside of the brush ferrule 45 and the outside of the duct D down through the space 65 to a suitable receptacle. When the washing is completed, the spindle with brush is withdrawn downwardly from the bottle.

From the hereinbefore given description and a view of the drawing, it will be observed that no portion of a material which I have designated as being made of metal, has any opportunity whatsoever of coming in Contact with either the neck or the inside surface of the bottle or the outside surface of the bottle at the top thereof adjacent the neck.

It is further to be understood that the separate bristles or strands of the brush 57 are made of a non-metallic material as is also the bmsh ferrule 45 and the duct D. The material of which I make the several parts which may come in contact with the glass surface of the bottle are formed of non-metallic high molecular weight polyamides.

The polyamides used in the practice of this invention are obtained from polyamide-forming reactants, as for instance by self polymerization of aminocarboxylic acids or by heating a polyamine with a polycarboxylic acid under polymerizing conditions until a high molecular weight polyamide is obtained.

Polyamides particularly suitable for the present purpose includes polyhexamethylene adipamide, polyhexamethylene terephthalamide, and mixtures of these polyamides. Particularly valuable are the synthetic linear polyamides melting above C. It is sometimes advantageous to use polyamides prepared from compounds at least one of which has more than two functional groups so that cross linking of the chains occurs. Particularly useful for the present purpose are the linear or fiber forming polyamides or superpolyamides disclosed in U. S. Patents Nos. 2,071,253 and 2,130,948.

A duct D formed of polyamides such as I have described or a brush ferrule formed of such polyamides may be safely rotated in contact with the glass of a bottle without fear of so injuring the surface that the bottle will have a tendency to break when filled with a uid impregnated under pressure with carbonio acid gas.

My duct D and the brush ferrule 45 are formed of such polyamides. The brush 57 may also be formed of like polyamides. With such a construction, as will be clearly seen by the drawing, no metal whatsoever is so exposed as to come in contact either with the outside end of the neck of a bottle or the inside of the neck or the inside surface of the bottle. Furthermore if the end of the brush ferrule 45 strikes the outside end of the neck of the bottle violently as it might do if the bottle is misplaced, it will not fracture the neck or break off a chip which might later find a permanent lodging within the bottle.

Of course, I do not intend to exclude well known plastics by my disclosure of a particular specific one.

A duct D made of such polyamides, if bent, will acquire a permanent set once the inside bore thereof has been subjected, for some considerable time, to contact with cleaning uid. If such contact occurs, the material of the duct is so altered that the duct may be bent by force applied at the opposite ends thereof and may retain that set or bent position so that the upper end will describe a rather large circle around the longitudinal axis of the duct. This is objectionable especially asthe ducts are rotated at a very high speed. It causes undue vibration and undue rubbing against the inside surface of the bottle.

In order to prevent my duct, under the conditions stated, from acquiring a permanent set or bent condition, I have forced a metallic tube of brass into the bore for the full length thereof with the exception of the space occupied by the ferrule holder. This expedient very considerably stiifened the duct so that it would not become so readily bent, but if it did once become bent, itwas quite impossible to straighten it because the brass tube within the bore acted to make the set permanent. The brass tube within the bore prevented the cleaning uid from coming in contact with the surface of the bore and so the ducts D were not bent as often as without the lining brass tube, but when they once did become bent it was quite impossible to straighten them.

My construction, as shown in the drawing, has obviated the difculty arising from the continuous brass tube liner of the bore of the duct D. In accordance with my nal construction, I place inside of the duct D, that is, the bore, a plurality of sections of metal tube, preferably brass, and preferably abutting end to end, that is, I place within the bore 11 of the duct D short lengths 67, 68 and 69 of brass tubing abutting end to end. These are all preferably forced into position. This construction prevents, to a certain extent, the cleaning uid from coming in contact with the surface of the bore 11. But what is more important, it so stiffens the duct D that it is not readily bent as by the end of the brush 45 coming in contact end to end with the end of the bottle. Furthermore if a bend is caused in the duct D it is usually selfstraightening when the force causing the bend is removed. If the bend does become permanent, it is quite easy to straighten the duct D because the brass tubing within the duct is not integral from end to end.

Although I prefer to place the brass tubes in the bore abutting end to end, and have illustrated and described this as my preferred construction, nevertheless, I do not mean to exclude a construction in which the ends of the brass tubes are somewhat separated.

A construction which proved acceptable included a onehalf inch, outside diameter, spindle, of my invention, about one foot long, and brass tubing sections one and one quarter of an inch long forced therein in abutting relation. The brass tubing was three sixteenth of an inch outside diameter and 0.1235 of an inch inside diameter. Of course, by my specific example, I do not mean to exclude constructions in which the diameter of the spindle is different and the inside and outside diameter of the brass tubing is different just so long as substantial rigidity is imparted to the spindle and straightening of the spindle when bent is not .substantially interfered with by the brass tubing.

I prefer to form my duct D by molding a rod, in the usual manner in which polyamides are molded, and then drill a longitudinal hole or bore through the solid rod in any of the usual manners in which such holes are formed.

I prefer to form my brush ferrule by molding, but it may be made from a piece of solid rod, which has previously been molded, by drilling the cavities required and counterboring and forming the internal thread in any of the usual manners. Y

From the hereinbefore given description it will be now understood that a brush carrying rotating spindle provided with means for introducing cleaning fluid within a bottle to be cleaned when made in accordance with my invention has an outside surface entirely free from any metallic members which may come in contact with any portion of a bottle being cleaned and that the bore of my brush carrying spindle is protected from substantial contact with cleaning fluid and is provided Within the bore with means to resist bending and that the means are of such form that if the ducts become bent it is possible to successfully straighten the same.

Although I have particularly described Va preferred physical embodiment of invention and explained the construction and principle thereof, nevertheless, I desire to have it understood that the form selected is merely illustrative, but does not exhaust the possible physical embodiments of the idea of means underlying my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to .secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A rotatable bottle brush, including, in combination, an elongated cylindrical body formed of non-metallic material and formed with a through bore, means at one end for attachment for rotation and for supplying cleaning fluid to said bore, a plurality of metallic tubes within said bore, a brush ferrule holder formed with a through bore fitting in the cylindrical body at the other end thereof, said brush ferrule holder without the bore of the cylindrical body abutting the end thereof by a portion formed of a diameter less than the external diameter of the cylindrical body, said brush ferrule holder further formed with an external screw thread beyond the said portion thereof and adapted to receive a brush ferrule, a brush fermle formed of non-metallic material and having an external diameter equal to the external diameter of the cylindrical body with one end formed as the frustum of a cone, said brush ferrule formed with a cavity therein opening in one end thereof and an internal screw thread within the cavity, said cavity receiving the threaded end of the brush ferrule holder with the said internal and said external threads interengaging, and also receiving the portion of the brush ferrule holder abutting the end of the cylindrical body with the end of the brush ferrule abutting the said other end of the cylindrical body, said brush ferrule formed with a slanting transverse bore communicating with the outside of the brush ferrule and the cavity of the brush ferrule beyond the end of the brush ferrule holder, said brush ferrule formed with a cavity in the other end thereof and means entirely within the last mentioned cavity for attaching brush bristles therein, brush bristles having portions within the last mentioned cavity and portions extended longitudinally beyond the said other end of the brush ferrule whereby the elongated cylindrical body with the brush bristles in advance may be extended into a bottle through the neck thereof while being rotated and cleaning fluid passed therethrough into the bottle and all rotating parts coming in contact with the bottle will be free from metallic parts capable of touching the surface of the bottle.

2. A rotatable bottle brush, including, in combination, an elongated cylindrical body formed of non-metallic material and formed with a through bore, means at one end for attachment for rotation and for supplying cleaning fluid to said bore, a metallic tube within said bore, a brush ferrule holder formed with a through bore fitting in the cylindrical body at the other end thereof, said brush ferrule holder without the bore of the cylindrical body abutting the end thereof by a portion formed of a diameter less than the external diameter of the cylindrical body, said brush ferrule holder further formed with an external screw thread beyond the said portion thereof and adapted to receive a brush ferrule, a brush ferrule formed of non-metallic material and having an external diameter equal to the external diameter of the cylindrical body with one end formed as the frusturn of a cone, said brush ferrule formed with a cavity therein opening in one end thereof and an internal screw thread within the cavity, said cavity receiving the threaded end of the brush ferrule holder with the said internal and said external threads interengaging, and also receiving the portion of the brush ferrule holder abutting the end of the cylindrical body with the end of the brush ferrule abutting the said other end of the cylindrical body, said brush ferrule formed with a slanting transverse bore communicating with the outside of the brush ferrule and the cavity of the brush ferrule beyond the end of the brush ferrule holder, said brush ferrule formed with a cavity in said other end of the brush ferrule whereby the elongated 5V cylindrical body with the brush bristles in advance may be extended into a bottle through the neck thereof while being rotated and cleaning fluid passed therethrough into the bottle and all rotating parts coming in contact References Cited inthe le of this patent with the bottle will be free from metallic parts capable 10 2,656,559

of touching the surface of the bottle.

UNITED STATES PATENTS Chamberlin Apr. 13, Volckening May 25, Breuer June 26, Culver Oct. 20, Porzel Mar. 19, Fowler Jan. 25, Wiseman Oct. 27, 

